Toastmasters...not an end, but a journey

Today, I won my third Toastmasters Contest in row. I'm continuing to use my same speech about customer service and I can use it one more time -- for the district competition in Deadwood. After that, I need to come up with a totally new speech.

So I was thinking what else might I like to talk about and the title above came to mind.

I first joined Toastmasters in 1989. I joined because I had a severe fear of public speaking. As in...I completely lost my appetite and was petrified beyond belief to get up in front of others. And finally, I realized I needed to overcome this fear. My tool would be Toastmasters.

For those of you who know no fear, let me tell you that phobias can be crippling. In fact, I not only feared public speaking but I also feared flying and a host of other things. But somehow overcoming my fear of speaking help me overcome these others as well...as if by magic.

But it took a great deal of work and time to get to where I felt comfortable being in front of a crowd and talking. And while I was doing that...I figured I might as also advance in whatever Toastmasters had to offer, namely communications and leadership training.

In 1994, I served as the district governor for about 60 clubs that stretched from western North Dakota to the western third of Minnesota. So from Alexandria, Minnesota, to Alexander, North Dakota sat my District 20 clubs.

The most important thing I learned about leadership was that if I can inspire volunteers to help me, I can inspire people who are actually getting paid to help me. The secret is what sounds like the call letters of a radio station - WIIFM. However, in this case, the letters stand for "What's in it for me?"

People are more likely to do something if they see a benefit for them rather than for you. They don't care if you win an award for being the district governor, but they want to win a ribbon or a plaque for being the president of the best club in the district. So if you inspire them to achieve their goals at the club level, you can achieve your goals as a district governor...simple as that.

But you never really feel like you mastered everything Toastmasters has to offer because Toastmasters isn't an end in itself. For instance, I achieved the highest distinction Toastmasters offers -- Distinguished Toastmaster or DTM. However, that's not important. What's important is that I use my skills that I learned in Toastmasters to do the things I like to do...such as teach a Sunday School class, be the song leader during church service or serve as the chairman of the church's administrative board. I also learned how to write a pretty good speech for executives, which has kept me gainfully employed!

I learned to be organized and communicate well by being a club and then a district officer. And I learned to speak well and, most importantly, be interesting by being a member of not one, but three Toastmasters clubs.

I now only belong to one club, but when I was younger, I had a red hot passion for Toastmasters because like everything else in life...the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

Or as Paul wrote to the church in Galatia, as you sow, so shall you reap.

Here's a picture of me with the speech trophy I won at Toastmasters today. My son Derek proudly displays his trophy for being an outstanding college TV weather personality. The legacy of Toastmasters continues to a second generation. Both Scott and Derek excelled at speech in high school -- both reaching the national forensic finals -- because they never feared public speaking. I guess they simply thought, "If dad can do it, there's nothing to it."